Among solid-state imaging devices which are to be mounted in imaging apparatuses such as a digital camera and a digital video camera, there is a device which has a plurality of photoelectric converting elements (pixels) that are two-dimensionally arranged, and in which a part of the elements (two adjacent pixels on which color filters of the same color are mounted) is formed as phase-difference pixels (pixels for detecting a phase difference), and the phase-difference pixels are used for measuring a distance (for example, see Patent Document 1).
In the two adjacent phase-difference pixels, respective openings of light-shielding films are disposed so as to be offset from the optical centers of microlenses respectively disposed in the pixels, in different directions.
In each of the phase-difference pixels, when its sensitivity is not low, moreover, the phase difference is hardly detected. Therefore, the area of the opening of the light-shielding film is smaller than that of other pixels.
In such phase-difference pixels, as described above, the openings of the light-shielding films have a small area. Therefore, their output signals cannot be sufficiently used as a captured image signal because their sensitivities are insufficient. In a similar manner as in defective pixels, consequently, the output signal of a phase-difference pixel is corrected by performing an interpolation calculation by using output signals of usual pixels which are in the periphery of the phase-difference pixel.
When an edge portion such as the face or eyes of a person overlaps with phase-difference pixels, however, there is a problem in that a trace of correction which is formed as a result of the interpolation calculation of the output signals of the phase-difference pixels is conspicuous.
Patent Documents 2 and 3 below disclose methods of correcting defective pixels. In the correcting methods, after regular imaging is performed by a solid-state imaging device, correction imaging is performed while changing the position of the solid-state imaging device, and defective pixels of the image which is obtained in the regular imaging are corrected by using the image which is obtained in the correction imaging. However, the correcting methods cannot solve the above-described problem in that a trace of correction is conspicuous.